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Since the call about my daughter, I’d spent three days speaking to my attorney, organizing flights and a hotel, and generally running around like a headless rooster. Katie had helped too, packing for me and getting me some gifts for Savannah, and making sure I ate and actually tried to sleep. She’d stayed at my place with me, seeing as her kids had gone away with Carl for the weekend, even Isaac had gone, probably sensing I needed his mom and I wouldn’t want to take up her time if any of her kids were around. Katie seemed to think he was building bridges with Carl too, which was a good thing.
My head had been fucking mush since finding out about Savannah. One minute I was angry at Cherry for keeping her a secret, then grateful because I didn’t think I’d be any good as a dad, and then I was downright heartbroken that I’d missed four years of her life – I just didn’t know what to feel. What I was certain of, was that I felt petrified of meeting her.
“I’m gonna have to go darlin’,” I said, gently pulling away from Katie. “I need to get to my gate.”
She nodded and giving me one last squeeze, let me go.
“Ring me when you get there.”
“I will. I’ll miss you.” I kissed her forehead and breathed her in, not knowing when I’d get to smell her scent again.
* * *
I’d been waiting in the reception area of the Social Services offices for almost an hour, and despite the AC pumping out cold air, I was hot and agitated. My appointment time had been and gone and according to the pinched faced women in charge of the phones, Mr. Jenson was running late and would get to me ‘all in good time’. Well I didn’t have time, I was desperate to see my daughter and get her out of the system, whatever decision I made.
“You’ll wear a hole in our carpet, Mr. Michaels,” the woman griped, without even looking up from her typing.
“I’m just anxious to get this sorted,” I replied, stopping in front of her. “I’ve traveled all the way from the UK for this meeting.”
“Well, like I said, he’ll be with you all in good time.”
Rolling my eyes, I stalked back to the hard plastic chair, which made my ass sweat.
Finally, after another twenty minutes, a tall, bulky guy with black hair and wearing an ill-fitting grey suit came over, holding his hand out.
“Mr. Michaels?”
“Hey,” I said, standing up and taking his hand. “Please call me Dex.”
“James Jenson, I’m Savannah’s case worker. Come on through to my office.”
I followed him into a small, air free office which had a portable fan working away in the corner, but it seemed to be slowly swirling the warm air around and little else.
“Please sit down.” James, sat behind his desk and reached for some papers before turning to his computer screen. “So, how was your flight over?”
He flashed me a smile and sat back in his chair, waiting for a response.
“Great. So you wanna tell me all about my daughter. When can I see her, and when can I meet the cousin?”
James nodded. “Of course, I understand you’re anxious to move forward, but we need to handle this delicately. Savannah is still a little fragile over her grandmother’s death and add to that she doesn’t even know of your existence, and things could go badly wrong if we don’t take care.”
“Yeah, I get that, I do, but is there no way I can get to see her without her knowing who I am?”
“That’s what we propose. We need to see how she interacts with you, whether she’s comfortable with you, before we let Savannah know who you are.”
“And the cousin, what’s the situation there?”
“Mr. Henry. Jackson and his wife Olivia are both lawyers and childless. They’d like to adopt Savannah.”
I tried to trawl through the family members that Cherry had ever mentioned, but a lawyer didn’t come to mind.
“I wasn’t close with Cherry’s family, but can’t say I recall a lawyer.”
James looked down at a piece of paper on his desk. “He’s actually a second cousin, or is it third cousin, I never know.”
He smiled at me, but I looked back, blankly, anxious for him to just get on with it.
“He’s the son of Mrs. Colby’s cousin, Miranda,” he finally finished.
